Isaac Hockenhull is the ex-husband of Mahalia Jackson. Isaac Hockenhull’s ex-wife Jackson was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Isaac Hockenhull’s wife Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S. During a time when racial segregation was pervasive in American society, she met considerable and unexpected success in a recording career, selling an estimated 22 million records and performing in front of integrated and secular audiences in concert halls around the world.
Isaac Hockenhull: Profile Summary
| Full Name | Isaac Lane Gray Hockenhull |
| Famous as | Ex-husband of Mahalia Jackson |
| Age at Time of Death | 71 years old as of 2022 |
| Date of Birth | November 15, 1901 |
| Place of Birth | Como, Panola County, Mississippi United States |
| Date of Death | July 1973 |
| Place of Death | Harvey, Cook County, Illinois United States |
| Zodiac sign | Scorpio |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Black |
| Wife | Mahalia Jackson |
Isaac Hockenhull was born on November 15, 1901, in Como, Mississippi. His father, John Hockenhull, was 33 and his mother, Mattie Danner, was 28. Hockenhull got married to Mahalia Jackson in 1936 in Chicago, Illinois. He died in July 1973 in Harvey, Illinois, at the age of 71.
How did the two love birds meet and started their relationship? Isaac was a chemist who found himself working as a postman during the 1930s Depression. It was at this time in 1935 that he met his future wife Mahalia. Mahalia was impressed by Isaac and the two married after a year.
However, it is also known that, in 1936, Mahalia Jackson married Isaac Hockenhull, a graduate of Fisk University and Tuskegee Institute who was 10 years her senior.
She refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life. She was frequently offered money to do so and she divorced Isaac in 1941 because of his unrelenting pressure on her to sing secular music and his addiction to gambling on racehorses.
Martha, Isaac’s mother, sold her own hair and skin care products, and she handed her son and new daughter-in-law 200 formulas. The newlywed couple attempted to sell them but were unsuccessful. Due to their financial difficulties, Isaac persuaded a hesitant Mahalia to pursue her singing career, which she did, moving from gospel to jazz and finally to the stage. But Mahalia refused to leave the gospel behind, eventually opening a thriving beauty salon and purchasing a building while continuing to travel on weekends.
As Mahalia’s career and investments grew, Isaac Hockenhull battled a gambling addiction, bought a racehorse with Mahalia’s money while she was on tour, and used her possessions as collateral for his debts, so they divorced amicably in 1943.
On his WW2 draft registration card, Isaac Hockenhull stated that he was 40 yrs old, “Negro”, was employed by the American Car & Foundry Company, weighed 190 lbs, and was 5 ft 7 in, complexion was light brown, hair black, eyes, brown. He listed Mahalia Jackson Hockenhull as his next of kin.
Isaac Hockenhull’s ex-wife, Mahalia Jackson
Though the gospel blues style Isaac Hockenhull’s ex-wife, Mahalia Jackson employed was common among soloists in black churches, to many white jazz fans it was novel. As she was the most prominent — and sometimes the only gospel singer many white listeners knew — she often received requests to define the style and explain how and why she sang as she did. Jackson was mostly untrained, never learning to read or write musical notation, so her style was heavily marked by instinct. She answered questions to the best of her ability though often responded with lack of surety, saying, “All I ever learned was just to sing the way I feel… off-beat, on the beat, between beats — however the Lord lets it come out.” When pressed for clearer descriptions, she replied, “Child, I don’t know how I do it myself.”
Jackson’s voice is noted for being energetic and powerful, ranging from contralto to soprano, which she switched between rapidly. Isaac Hockenhull’s wife resisted labeling her voice range instead calling it “real strong and clear”. She used bent or “worried” notes typical of blues, the sound of which jazz aficionado Bucklin Moon described as “an almost solid wall of blues tonality”.
She moaned, hummed, and improvised extensively with rhythm and melody, often embellishing notes with a prodigious use of melisma, or singing several tones per syllable. Author Anthony Heilbut called it a “weird ethereal sound, part moan, part failed operatics”.
Gospel historian Horace Boyer attributes Jackson’s “aggressive style and rhythmic ascension” to the Pentecostal congregation she heard as a child, saying Jackson was “never a Baptist singer”.
Isaac Hockenhull’s ex-wife, Mahalia Jackson also died on January 27, 1972 in OSF Little Company of Mary Medical Center, Evergreen Park, Illinois, United States. While touring Europe, Jackson became ill in Germany and flew home to Chicago where she was hospitalized. In January 1972, she received surgery to remove a bowel obstruction and died in recovery. Although news outlets had reported on her health problems and concert postponements for years, her death came as a shock to many of her fans. She received a funeral service at Greater Salem Baptist Church in Chicago where she was still a member.
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